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1 November 2011

A Sunday in Surbiton...

Before these dark evenings started drawing in and the temperature started to drop, me and The Boy met up with our friend Simon a few weeks ago for a CycleSunday afternoon ride around Surbiton. We'd been wanting to do this for ages as Surbiton is Simon's cycling-ground, and he sure knows the place! He planned out a wonderful tour of the area, including two of my favourite things - Coffee & Cakes... and an unexpected encounter with a famous resident of Bushy Park...

En route to Kingston we made two stops that were definitely reflective of our interests! 1st one was for The Boy. He needed to make a Rib-Stop on Brick Lane (he will explain this one on his Food Blog...), which allowed us to get a big-spicy breakfast. I muscled in on this pit stop, as the morning light was to lovely to ignore to get a photo of my Autumn-themed Cycle-Wardrobe for the day...

Head Scarf: Tie Rack

Earrings: Dorothy Perkins

Oak Leaves Wooden Necklace: Tatty Devine

Cable Knit Jumper: Forever 21

Drum Brooch: Tatty Devine

Shorts: Gap

Leather Boots: M&S

The second stop was one for me... our ride out of London would take us past the City Cycle Style exhibition in the Royal Exchange. Although I'd attended the celebratory drinks for the exhibition at the Grange Hotel a few weeks ago (all very posh indeed) I'd not actually seen it...

It was great to see the outdoor show in all its glory... and of course I had to get a cheesy photo in amongst those selected to be on display! Quick-stops done, we made our way to meet Simon for the leisurely 'Tour de Surbiton'.

Cycling along the Thames was beyond picturesque - the weather was fantastic, lots of people were sat along the river bank enjoying the day and the light glistening off the water was beautiful!

After a lovely ride along the water, it was time to feed the Coffee and Cake desire I always get from cycling! Our fuel-stop was Mada Deli - and when it came to cakes, it was more than a sweet treat...

Suitably fed & caffeinated, we got back on our bikes and headed to Hampton Court Palace Maze. I've done the Maze before - but there was no way I could possibly remember the lay-out of it.

Don't ask me how, but The Boy managed to work out the route to the middle of the Maze and back out again in one go! I think me and Simon are still a bit perplexed by this...

Anyway, back on our wheels and to Bushy Park we went. This was a new one for me - I'd never been there before and admit to being very excited at the promise of seeing Deer close-up in real life. Thing is, I didn't realise just how close-up my encounter with these creatures would be. We'd spotted what we assumed was a deceased Stag - his Antlers were standing tall above the blades of grass. Curiosity got the better of me, so as we all got off our bikes to investigate, I decided to walk a bit closer to check the poor thing out. The good news - he wasn't departed and just sleeping. The bad news - he was "The Beast of Bushy Park" and we'd just woken him up...

As captured by The Boy - the look on my face should explain the sheer levels of "Holy Sh*t!" thoughts going through my mind at this point!

This was the picture of the Stag-Daddy I got when he woke up, before slowly backing away from him. That saying about letting sleeping dogs lie? The same applies to these fellas too.

Thanks to not getting (deservedly) charged at by Mr Beast, the rest of the afternoon in Bushy Park went without incident, and some more Deer-Spotting happened as we made our way out of the beautiful area...

It truly was an amazing Cycle-Sunday, again reminding me there are so many beautiful things to be seen in the UK by Bike... happy cycling.